MCC Awards Strauss Honorary Life Membership

MCC Awards Strauss Honorary Life Membership

Andrew Strauss.

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MCC has awarded former England captain Andrew Strauss Honorary Life Membership of the club.
 
Strauss' invitation acknowledges his exceptional contribution to the game, which includes representing England on 231 occasions, scoring over 11,000 international runs, and winning back-to-back Ashes series as captain in 2009 and 2011. 

He announced his retirement from all cricket following the conclusion of the South Africa Test Match at Lord’s in 2012: eight years and 100 Tests - including 50 as Captain - after scoring a brilliant century on Test debut against New Zealand at the Home of Cricket in 2004.   
 
The opening batsman had a particularly impressive record at Lord’s – in eighteen Tests appearances at the Ground Strauss scored 1,562 runs (over 1,000 more than at any other venue) and hit five hundreds, including a memorable 128 against Pakistan in his first Test as England Captain in 2006.  He also struck a First-Class career best of 241 not out for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Lord’s in 2011.        
 
Strauss joins a select group of current and former players, umpires, administrators and journalists, who are already Honorary Life Members of MCC.  He becomes the 27th former England Captain to accept the invitation, and the third member of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning side following Michael Vaughan in 2010 and Andrew Flintoff in 2011.
 
Upon becoming an MCC Honorary Life Member, Andrew Strauss said: "Thank you so much to all at MCC for the offer of Honorary Life Membership.  It is, of course, a great honour to receive this invitation, and I clearly have no hesitation in accepting."
 
President of MCC, Mike Griffith, said: "Andrew Strauss has had a remarkable cricketing career and made an outstanding contribution to the game. 

"His achievements for Middlesex and England – particularly at Lord’s – are numerous and rightly celebrated.  I am absolutely delighted that he has accepted MCC’s invitation of Honorary Life Membership of the Club, and I very much look forward to seeing him at Lord’s many times in the future."
 
Honorary Life Membership is awarded by the MCC Committee to individuals in recognition of the service they have given to cricket and projects surrounding the game, often over a very long period.  There are now more than 300 Honorary Life Members of MCC out of a total Full Membership of 18,000.
 
The invitation represents the latest association that Strauss has with MCC, having been elected as a First-Class Playing Member in 2001, when he wore the Club colours for the first time on an overseas tour to Namibia.  Having read Economics at Durham, Strauss is also an alumni of the MCC Universities scheme, which gives talented young players the best possible academic and cricketing opportunities.